G. David Felt

United States Postal Service (USPS) has taken an interesting road to updating their fleet of mail delivery vehicles. Lets start with March 24th, 2022 the USPS signs a contract with OshKosh Defense to the tune of $2.98 billion dollars for 50,000 mail trucks and 10,019 are to be EV. These new trucks are to replace the very aged fleet that is currently running on empty and lack many modern conveniences. The LLV or Long-Life Delivery Vehicles lacked many things from AC to a wide variety of safety items and on top were not very efficient for actually delivering mail on top of the fact that the 190,000-vehicle fleet has an average age of 30 years. In comparison, the NGDV or Next Generation Delivery Vehicle will feature air conditioning, improved ergonomics, and some of the most advanced vehicle and safety technology — including 360-degree cameras, advanced braking and traction control, air bags, a front-and rear-collision avoidance system that includes visual, audio warning, and automatic braking. The vehicles will also have increased cargo capacity to maximize efficiency and better accommodate higher mail and package volumes. The NGDV were supposed to be built and on the streets starting the end of 2023 but have since been pushed back to a June 30th, 2024. The electric version will follow some time in 2025. USPS on December 20th, 2022, updated the NGDV to be a contract of 60,000 mail delivery vehicles with a minimum requirement of 45,000 to be EV and the rest to be ICE (internal combustion engine) or gas powered for rural routes. At this same time, USPS indicated that they are now focused on replacing not only the 190,000 mail delivery trucks but will also replace their large parcel delivery vans also bringing the total to 220,000 vehicles as congress had approved an additional $3 billion dollars to make the fleet green provided as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. With delivery to 163 million addresses six days per week, the fleet of mail and packages delivery autos are now costing far more money to run than replacing them with modern autos. The bulk of these delivery autos on average only cover 10 to 15 miles a day. March 1st, 2023, USPS selected Ford Motor Company's E-Transit vans to replace aging parcel vans. Ford will deliver 9,250 electric vans starting in 2024. Ford will build the needed infrastructure at their Kansas City Assembly Plant to build by their UAW workforce these vans. We move forward to January 22nd, 2024, and USPS with Ford announce the first delivery of E-Transit vans for use in their Atlanta Sorting and delivery center with the prototype OshKosh NGDV. This Atlanta center also has the first large scale charging network and is the first of 400 sorting and delivery centers across the U.S. that will be converted to support a majority EV focused auto fleet. This charging station was manufactured by Siemens and is the start of a 14,000-charging network to be installed in 2024. Siemens, Rexel/ChargePoint and Blink will be the suppliers of choice by contract to install these charging stations across the U.S. through 2028. Now lets move forward by two days, January 24th, 2024, and the USPS signs a contract with Canoo a maker of their Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle for six of their delivery vans to test against the Ford E-transit for possible inclusion in future EV auto purchases. Canoo will deliver these six EVs called the LDV 190 in Q1 2024 or by the end of March. The USPS has dedicated $40 billion dollars to the modernization of their whole fleet from the residential mail delivery vehicles to parcel delivery vans and mid to class 8 semi trucks to reduce their carbon footprint. These six vans will be used in 2024 to allow USPS to consider Canoo as a potential supplier of modern EV delivery vehicles. Per Canoo press release: “The multi-purpose platform with steer-by-wire technology and a unique low-profile suspension system allows for a readily configurable right-hand drive system while maintaining desired roll and ride stability,” said Tony Aquila, Investor, Executive Chairman, and CEO of Canoo. This is part of a committed USPS 10-year Modernization plan expected to be complete by 2034. USPS has stated that Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) will now play a critical role in helping modernize the 220,000-delivery vehicle fleet of which OshKosh will make up 60,000 plus potentially more.